CALL TO DAIRYMEN

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 166, 13 June 1940, Page 6

CALL TO DAIRYMEN

GREATER PRODUCTION. BREEDERS’ PRESIDENT. “Our Empire is facirig at the present time probably tlie greatest crisis m history, and jt is, I feel certain, no only the bounden duty but the earnest desire of the dairy farmers of the Dominion to do their utmost to assist in bringing victory;to our cause. One of the principal, perhaps the most important way, in which the dairy faimers can help is not only by maintaining but by largely increasing the production of the foodstuffs so vital to the welfare of the Homeland. Me must exert every effort to export the largest possible quantities of all- foodstuffs required in the Motherland that this Dominion is capable of producing- Thus urged Air J. Parlane, -of Christchurch, the retiring president of the New Zealand Dairy Breeds Federation, at the annual meeting of that organisation yesterday. ’ ; '< ~ ~ “In tlie first nlace, Mr Parlane proceeded, “it is .essential that immedi-at-e steps be taken to build up our dairy herds and I suggest that dairy ari J l * ers should rear more heifer, calves. At present the deplorable waste m this matter is shown by the fact that in the eleven months ended March, 1940, over a million calves were slaughtered in trie Dominion of which approximately halt would be iieifers. The rearing of a considerable proportion of these heifers would not only provide for heavy culling of inferior cows and for normal replacements through disease and accident, but would enable large additions to be made to our dairy herds, buck stens are imperative! as authorities state that there are some 60,000 fewer dairy cows in milk this year than there were last- year. , , . V ' “Our dairy cow population is at piesent 15 millions and surely our country, the most favoured 111 the world from a climatic viewpoint for dallying, could easily, if due provision were made for winter feeding, carry double that number. “The 1940 Year Book shows a marked decrease in tlie average of production of butterfat per cow in the Dominion, the figures for the past three seasons - being : 1936-7, 2451 b; 1937-8, 2381 b; and 1938-9, 2151 b. Probably the marked decline in the 1938-9 season was due to adverse climatic conditions, but dairy farmers by due attention to pasture management and winter feeding could certainly more than maintain 'the 1936-37 figures of 2451 b per cow. .“Pig rearing is s&n absolutely efiseritial part, and a highly profitable part, of dairy farming and. if we can largely increase our supply of bacon to Britain we will be rendering most valuable help. Every dairy farmer should be a pig producer. There is no food supply that can be more rapidly increased than that of pig products. In Denmark, with a cow population of 1,625,000, there were in 1938 no fewer than 2,706.000 pigs. New Zealand, with 1,854,000 cows, had only 683.000 pigs. Denmark had 166 pigs per 100 cows, while New Zealand had only 37. As Mr M. J. Scott, Superintendent of the Pig Industry, points out, ‘the foundation of that increase (i.e.. in the number of pigs slaughtered) has bee 11 more pigs wintered, or more fundamentally still' the, growing of crops for winter pig' feed.’ “The labour question is undoubted-., ly a most serious matter for the dairy farmer.. Every one knows the extreme difficulty of securing reliable workers for dairy farms. 1 welcome the assurances of the Government that- every effort will be made to divert labour to the farm lands of the Dominion. It will be necessary for dairy farmers to show consideration to workers who are inexperienced, for an inexperienced man who is willing to learn can soon he made efficient. " On behalf of the New Zealand Dairy Breeds Federation, representing the breeders of Pedigree dairy cattle in New Zealand, I wish to convey to the Government our definite assurance that in every possible wav breeders will assist in supplying the Homeland with foodstuffs,” Air Parlane concluded.